Wednesday, February 03, 2016

Have STEM, Will Travel

The two most intelligent people I know both went to state universities. They both majored in engineering, too:

We’ve written before about how selective colleges function to perpetuate privilege, giving students access to exclusive resources, opportunities
and networks that are unavailable to students who are just as bright
but couldn’t impress an admissions committee at age 17—or who, for
financial or personal reasons, didn’t want to go to a elite school. In
yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, the economists Erica Eide and
Michael Himler, who have tallied earnings data for students across
colleges and across different majors, offer an important qualification
to his phenomenon: it only seems to apply to students who earn liberal
arts degrees. Students with similar characteristics who major in STEM
fields earn roughly the same wherever they go to college....

1 comment:

I went to a private university that commands some acclaim when people discover my history. I honestly believe peers that went to state universities had a more rigorous course of study and better professors. When I was in school, counselors basically pointed you to University of Texas, Texas A&M or Texas Tech. They didn't know about out of state schools, and especially didn't know about schools like CalArts or RISD-places I would have loved to attend school. I have a number of kids swinging for Ivies and probably a few will get in, but it doesn't mean it's the best option. I've known students who went to Harvard or Stanford or Penn State for a year and came home because the location, population and classes just didn't fit. Personally I think everyone should attend one year at a community college knocking out the basics and THEN decide. Too many kids waste years in majors and in schools they only tolerate.